Morning journal and courier., 1887-05-20
TURKISH FUNERAL RITES.


Death and Burial fin the Land of the
 Crescent.
 If Turk dies or looks as if he was dead no physician, no inspector comes to make sure that death has really taken place; but if it has not the fact will soon be established, thanks to a procedure more efficient than all the gentle and refined means in vogue in the West to make sure that the deceased is not hoaxing his heirs.
 Scarcely has the last breath been taken when the corpse is lifted up violently by wig orous arms, says Emile Julliard in the Cos mopolitan, the clothing snatched of, laid on the fagstones in the mortuary chamber or vestibule and besprinkled with hot water, which is thrown uponit by the imam, provi- ded with large pail. The sprinkling is re- peated two or three times, so that the family runs little danger of seeing the deceased re- suscitated.
 Thus scalded as a preliminary step, the body is washed and dried. Then it is be- powdered with camphor, and after being covered with cloth embroidered with verses from the Koran, it is exposed for several hours in the courtyard. Afterward the imam returns and accompanies the corpse to it's last resting place.
 The flat covered bier is usually carried on the shoulders of friends of the deceased or upon those of hired pallbearers. Some times strangers assume this duty gratuitous- ly, looking upon it as a plous and merltorl- ous act. The cortege is made up only of those that carry the coffin by turns, thus re- lieving one another without stopping. The coffin is made of cedar and it is seldom var nished, but it is covered with rug or shawl, and there is placed at the head turban or fez if the deceased is a male.
 The procession always moves hastily, not for the purpose of getting rid of the dismal burden, but to hasten the moment when de ceased shall enjoy eternal repose; for the Mussulman believes that the soul is restless and unhappy as long as tho corpse is unbur- jed. This is why three or four hours only elapse between death and burial.
 On arriving at the cemetery the imam so places the bier that the face of the deceased is turned toward Mecca; he then approaches the brink of the grave and utters very long prayer, the conclusion of which is as fol- lows: 'tDrsw near, Mounkir and Nekir, an- gels of death and ministers of Allah. Great and blessed God. we humbly heseech thee to make the earth light for thy servant. May he find grace and mercy with thee. Amen" A Christians prayer does not say anything more nor any better.
 According to the Koran the deceased is the owner of his grave in perpetuity, and the objectionable system of sepulture in TO- tation is unknown to the Mussulmans; and in Constantinople, in Eyoub and Scutari the room occupied by cemeteries is almost as ex- tensive as that covered by dwellings. With in recent years it has been found necessary, in order to open roads that have been much needed, to eurtaii and even suppress some of the cemeteries, but it required an express order from the Sultan, which made the ule- mas utter the vail of bigots.
 The cypress is pre- eminently the funeral tree. Each tomb has to have it's own. And Turkish cemeteries become gloomy forests in time, which impart to certain Oriental land scapes an aspect singularly stiff and somber. It is upon the seashore that these funeral forests are found in the greatest abundance; the trees, being nourished by the soil tertll- ized by human remains, reach prod1glous size and height. The largest and most cele- brated of these cemeteries is that ot Scutari, upon the Asiatic coast of the Bosphorus; It exteuds over an area more than six miles square. The tombstones are in the shape ot an oval, wider at the top than the bottom, and surmeunted with turban or fez, the form of which, varying greatly, indicates the rank of the deceased. A gilt inscription ln Iurk- | ish characters, cut in relief on blue back ground, gives the name and enumerates the | virtues of the deceased and implores divine l mercy in his behalf These stones are some | times perpendicular, sometimes leaning very l much. In the latter case hole is dug at the | base of the tomb, intended to catch rain fol ! the little birds that come to quench their | thirst.
 The dead are not buried very deep. and it | is strange that the custom does not cause more sickness than it does. A large propor